It appears that Bluesky’s most prominent sponsor is no longer on the board.
On Saturday, Jack Dorsey posted on X about grants for open protocols from his Start Small philanthropic initiative. This prompted someone to ask Dorsey if he was still on the Bluesky board, and he he responded with a terse “no”. Dorsey did not respond to any of the subsequent posts asking him to explain his departure.
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It’s unclear when Dorsey left the board; from Sunday morning, Bluesky Corporate FAQ still identifies him as a board member. We contacted the company for confirmation.
Dorsey first announced Bluesky in 2019, when he was still CEO of Twitter. He wrote that Twitter (now X) was “funding a small, independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers to develop an open, decentralized standard for social media.”
Bluesky has since become an independent public benefit corporation led by CEO Jay Graber, with VC supportand that open to the general public in February.
Dorsey appears to have deleted his Bluesky account sometime last year, although his departure was only acknowledged at the time by a a handful of social media posts. (He too deleted your Instagram account.) Despite this, he remained the biggest name associated with the project.
Back at X, Dorsey had a very active weekend. In addition to releasing corporate news, he also weighed in on the fight between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, unfollowed almost all other accountsIt is posted, “don’t depend on companies to grant you rights. defend them yourself using freedom technology. (you’re in one)”